CAIRO: Human rights activists from an array of civil society groups took to the streets of downtown on Sunday to protest what they call the politically motivated shut down of the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid (AHRLA).
The closure comes after a bureaucratic saga in which the group spent months trying to deflect government accusations that it took money from the United States without receiving permission from the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
Staff lawyers for AHRLA vigorously denied any financial misdeeds, even as representatives of the Interior Ministry swept through their office seizing files and documents.
They say the ministry gave them permission to receive funds from the National Endowment for Democracy, and that when the state first made its accusations in June they provided it with copies of all the relevant paperwork.
“We sent all the necessary documents to the Ministry of Social Solidarity, said Mohamed Bayoumi, a lawyer for the group. “When we sent them, the Ministry said they would respond after ten days, and we waited for their response for two months. After two months, they told us they were going to close us down.
“Now that they have seized all of our files and documents, they can really see for themselves that we did not do anything wrong, he added, pointing out a ministry official walking down the street with a box of papers to a foreign reporter.
Members of AHRLA received notice that the government was considering shutting the group down in late August, but were not told that the decision had been made until Sept. 9.
They say they will appeal the decision before the Administrative Court on Oct. 23, but express little optimism in the future of their association. Instead, says Bayoumi, the current AHRLA legal team plans to reopen as the Group for Human Rights and Legal Aid at a new office located in Cairo’s Tawfiqeyya neighborhood.
“Now we are worried that when the government announces their new amendments to the law on organizations they will say it is illegal for any organization to have the word ‘group’ in its name, he said with a wry laugh.
Rights activists and opposition leaders say that the AHRLA shut down is an escalation of the crackdown that has been slowly descending on Egypt since the mass arrests at judicial demonstrations in 2006. Over 700 people were arrested over several days during protests in support of greater judicial freedom, a demand to which the state never acquiesced.
Demonstrators were quick to point out that the closure of the legal aid group comes only six months after the closure of the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services, a prolific workers’ rights group that was accused of endangering national security through its advocacy of labor unions independent of state control.
The closure of the AHRLA also comes less than a week after the editors of four independent newspapers, including firebrand newspaperman Ibrahim Eissa, were sentenced to one year jail terms and hit with heavy fines for insulting the ruling National Democratic Party of President Hosni Mubarak.
The four were also convicted of insulting the “symbols of the party – President Mubarak and his son Gamal, who many opposition figures consider the heir apparent to the presidency.
“This cannot be seen in isolation from the general crackdown that we are witnessing now, said Hossam Bahgat, the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
“The beginning of the end was the crackdown on supporters of the judges’ demonstration in the spring of 2006, and now this closure comes at the same time as last week’s attack on independent media, he added. “This is a clear indication that we are seeing the end of the relative openness that began in 2005.
Protestors and opposition leaders were united in their belief that AHRLA was innocent of the financial misdeeds it stands accused of, and that it has instead been targeted by the regime for its legal work on behalf of torture victims.
“AHRLA was very outspoken in bringing state security officers closer to criminal trials before the courts, said Aida Seif El Dawla, a professor at Ain Shams University and member of the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture.
“Over the summer they filed charges against state security officer Ashraf Safwat on the murder under torture of Mohamed Abdel Adel, she said. “Even though he was eventually acquitted, this was the first time since 1986 that a state security officer was referred to criminal court.
Ultimately, Seif El Dawla believes, it was that historic court case that may have been AHRLA’s undoing.
“They were too loud a voice against torture and the policies of the Interior Ministry, she said. “The regime does not want to tolerate any criticism of any sort – it is closing NGOs, it is persecuting journalists, it is banning peaceful gatherings. This is the state of emergency in action.
Noha Atef, the editor of the advocacy website www.tortureinegypt.net, agrees. According to her, the shut down of such a prominent legal aid organization is meant to have a chilling effect on human rights advocacy in Egypt.
“This association is very active and has defended many torture victims, so it is only logical that the government would come after them, she says.
“The state wants to send a message to other civil society groups – they say ‘this was one of the biggest groups and we can just dissolve it whenever we want.’ she adds “That this can happen to a big organization with a lot of its own lawyers – how do you think normal people who don’t have a team of lawyers with them will feel about standing up against torture?
Bahgat agrees that the specter of further shut downs, and the shock of seeing one of the most prominent human rights groups shuttered by the state, may be what motivated so many different organizations to come to AHRLA’s aid.
“There is a sense of urgency here. This is an increasingly irritated and autocratic regime that is intent on shutting down any channels for peaceful dissent, he said, watching as rings of baton-wielding, black-clad riot police encircled a small group of protestors.
“People can tell that something serious is about to happen.
